The world's fastest Women will gather in St. Moritz (Switzerland) next weekend for the second stop of the speed calendar. Two Downhills and a Super-G races are scheduled to take place in the Upper Engadine Valley on the World Championship course “Engiadina” on Corviglia.
St. Moritz is a classic and a fixed date in the women's Ski World Cup calendar.
St. Moritz (SUI)
December 16th Downhill / 10:30 CET
December 17th Downhill / 10:30 CET
December 18th Super-G / 11:30 CET
For the first time since the Ski World Championships 2017, a Downhill race will be held in St. Moritz.
Austria's Mirjam Puchner won the last Downhill race held in the Engiadina Run, it was her first career World Cup victory. Fabienne Suter came in second just +0.13 behind and Elena Curtoni took third +0.17 seconds out.
Start altitude: 2,745m (DH), 2,580m (SG)
Finish altitude: 2,030m
Elevation difference: 715m (DH), 550m (SG)
Length: 2,633m (DH), 1,950m (SG)
Last season Lara Gut-Behrami and Federica Brignone were the winners of the two Super-G held in St. Moritz.
On December 11, 2021, Lara Gut-Behrami returned to her winning ways with a Super-G victory. Gut-Behrami was characteristically compact and consistent. She bested Sofia Goggia by 0.18 seconds. Mikaela Shiffrin joined the unbeatable duo to complete the podium (+1.18).
The following day the jury decided to use the reserve exit due to the strong wind. On a shortened racecourse, the Italian team puts on a show with a 1-2 podium and 5 skiers in the Top 10.
Federica Brignone defeated her teammate Elena Curtoni to claim victory in the second Super-G held in St. Moritz. Brignone mastered the difficult conditions with risky and technically clean skiing, especially in the midsection.
Elena Curtoni finished in second place +0.11 behind Brignone.
Mikaela Shiffrin was again on the podium in the same position (+0.44).
St. Moritz has a permanent place in the international ski racing calendar. St. Moritz has hosted five alpine ski world championships: 1934, 1948, 1974, 2003, and 2017 and two Olympic Games in 1928 and 1948 – the only ones ever held in Switzerland. St. Moritz is one of the very few exclusive locations, such as Lake Placid and Innsbruck, to have hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice. The 1928 Games were, in fact, the first-ever official Winter Olympic Games – the "test run" in Chamonix (1924) was only honored with this title much later on.
St. Moritz is more than just a holiday resort. It was also the birthplace of the Alpine winter holidays in 1864. Nevertheless, St. Moritz first became famous thanks to its mineral springs, which were discovered 3,000 years ago and established the town as a summer spa resort early on.
St. Moritz, which lies on the south side of the Alps, in the Upper Engadine Valley, at an elevation of 1,856 m, boasts plenty of sunny days. It was exactly this sun that was legally protected as the emblem of St. Moritz in 1930. St. Moritz was often ahead of the times - for example, the first electric light went on at Christmas time in 1878, the first golf tournament in the Alps took place here, in 1889 and one of the first ski lifts in Switzerland began running in 1935.
St Moritz is Switzerland's most famous exclusive winter resort: glitzy, expensive, and fashionable. Few ski destinations can claim even one five-star hotel, but this sunny Swiss lakeside resort boasts five, including the all-suites Carlton, located in Tsar Nicolai II’s former vacation house. St. Moritz Dorf in the hillside over the lake includes Via Serlas’s jet-set shopping "luxury mile", with boutiques like Emilio Pucci, Gucci, Chanel, or jewelry stores like Bucherer, Cartier or Chopard. St. Moritz Bad, at the lake’s foot, hides local gems among its shops, restaurants, and hotels.
The valley offers nine ski areas accessed with a single ski pass. Several of them are connected by lifts; the rest are connected by bus. The Engadine Ski Paradise: St. Moritz-Corviglia, Corvatsch, Diavolezza are synonymous with breathtaking and unforgettable skiing experiences. 60 modern transportation facilities open up on 350 km of snow-covered runs at altitudes from 1,800 to 3,300 meters above sea level of slopes in nine different skiing areas with 37 mountain restaurants.